Quote Originally Posted by GLC1968 View Post
A bigger concern with bacon is what is in the fat. A big problem with high fat, industrial meat is that the bad things an animal is exposed to ends up concentrated in the fat. So since bacon is so high in fat, a pig fed a lot of antibiotics or hormones will produce bacon full of this stuff. This is why most paleo diet proponents recommend only lean meats if you are buying traditionally raised (ie factory farmed) meat. If you can get pastured grass-fed meat, then the fat is actually healthy for you, so eating it is no big deal. This is my long way of saying that more important than how your bacon was processed is how the pig was raised when it comes to heath.
Keep in mind that in America, pigs cannot be given hormones. Any antibiotic given puts that hog on a Withdrawal list - meaning they cannot be slaughtered before a certain number of days determined by regulatory agencies after administration of that product. Generally this allows for any drug residues to be "washed out" of the tissue. The only major antibiotic I know of that is in regular use on most swine farms is Tylosin, which treats the chronic diarrhea these guys can get.

Of course pasture raised and grass fed is better in all respects, as those animals are not likely to have been exposed to antibiotics at all - but I assure you, any farmer who cares for their herd will treat those that need to be treated, with antibiotics if that's what's needed.

The reason confinement operation (CFO) beef is bad for you is because those animals eat a crap ton of corn, which they aren't designed to digest. This puts them in a constant state of ruminal acidosis (ie chronic heartburn) which makes the animal sick. Sick animals aren't good to eat. Corn also has 0 nutrients so all the good Omega-3s these guys have been building up out on pasture in the cow-calf operation gets depleted and replaced by oxidized omega-6, of which too much is very bad for you.